Cambodian residents report threats over railway development [Bravo AusAID?!?!]

Railroad residents: Poor and vulnerable communities say they are regularly subject to forced relocation in Cambodia and say they are insufficiently compensated. (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Monday, May 16, 2011
Radio Australia News

Impoverished Cambodians say they are being forcibly moved out of their houses to make way for the country's redeveloped railway system.

The ABC's Southeast Asia correspondent, Zoe Daniel, says more than 160 families from a community in the capital, Phnom Penh, have been offered a few hundred dollars' compensation for their houses by local authorities.

The residents say the compensation they've been offered isn't enough. Some say they will lose buildings they live and work in, while others are angry that they've been told to move about 20km out of the city.

Residents who don't want to leave say they've been threatened by local officials.

One resident says she was asked to accept the deal by giving a thumb print.

"If I don't, they will bulldoze my house, they will hire [a] drug user to burn my house," she said.

The railway project being is built with funding from the Australian aid agency AusAID and the Asian Development Bank, and that marked buildings within 3.5 metres of the line are scheduled to be partially or fully demolished.

ADB spokesman Peter Bloch has rejected reports of intimidation and threats.

"Resettlement is always a horribly difficult thing to do in this part of the world," he said.

"We have what's known as a safeguards policy, which sets certain minimum standards that must be upheld when resettling people."

But residents, together with NGOs, are preparing a complaint to the ADB's highest level, while Bridges Across Borders Cambodia (BABC), a prominent NGO, is also advocating on residents' behalf.

The organisation's founder, David Pred, says the project bears the characteristics of corporate welfare.

"You have Australian tax dollars and Cambodian debt to the Asian Development Bank bankrolling a project, whose primary beneficiaries thus far have been major Australian and Cambodian corporations," he said.

Failed resettlement

Last year, our correspondent says more than 50 families were relocated to Battambang, a town north-west of Phnom Penh, and that many reported having no power or clean water when they arrived.

Sok Cheun says two of his children drowned when they went to get water from a deep pond nearby.

"If we had enough food, enough water, my children would not have died," he said.

Following the deaths, AusAID and the Asian Development Bank say they increased their monitoring of the government resettlement program.

Power has also reportedly been connected to houses but at the resident's cost, and many of those resettled are understood to have left.

The Asian Development Bank's criteria for resettlement outlines the need for people to be in the same or better circumstances after they are moved.

Mr Pred says BABC believes the large number of families that have left Battambang is an indication that the resettlement process has failed.

"Obviously, if people are not happy to stay here, where they've been moved, then that shows that they weren't resettled adequately," he said.

AusAID declined to comment but has said that relocating people affected by the new rail line is the responsibility of the Cambodian Government.

The new railway is expected to be operational by the end of next year, and is to be run by an Australian firm, Toll Holdings.

Our correspondent says Toll Holdings, which has a 30-year concession to operate Cambodia's train system, has indicated that it is not responsible for either fixing the tracks or moving the people.